“Too much of a good thing is wonderful,” Mae West said. Even I wasn’t around when West immortalized that line in 1932. Even so, it’s a motto of mine, for better or for worse – be it pizza, Gatorade or ...

“A VIEW of the FIRE-WORKES and ILLUMINATIONS at his GRACE the Duke of RICHMOND’S at WHITEHALL and on the River Thames on Monday 15 May 1749. Performed by the direction of Charles Fredrick Esq.” The ...

But how would a selection of contemporary composers (all of whom, pleasingly were in the hall) going to approach their task of re-intepretation? With Harry Christophers, one of the greatest modern ...

Handel, who is recognised throughout the world for the composition, wrote personally to Charles Jennens calling the piece “your Messiah”. According to the handwritten letters, he credited the ...

The first major crossroads on the musical landscape was mapped around 1600. There'd been a basic simplicity to what had gone before. From Gregorian chant - church music sung in a single vocal line - ...

Modern attempts to update classical masterpieces are in an age-old tradition – and the music has always survived Ivan Hewett is The Telegraph’s Classical Music Critic and an author whose works include ...